Rita

Rita is a Cuban refugee from Castro’s revolution whose anticommunism finds expression in domestic life. When she meets Madame, their shared political convictions create an alliance: Rita treats the family as a front in the struggle against communism and regards control over children’s culture and behavior as part of that fight.

Identity and Introduction

Rita appears at a luncheon with Madame, the General, and Congressman. The narrator describes her as a refugee from Castro’s revolution and says she bears a passing resemblance to Rita Hayworth, with ten or fifteen years and pounds added to the film star at her most glamorous. Her introduction links her personal history to the meeting’s political purpose: she and Madame recognize one another as women whose opposition to communism is also expressed through their families.

Political Alliance

Rita presents Cubans and Vietnamese as cousins in a shared anticommunist cause. She describes Castro as evil and argues that living alongside an enemy makes evil recognizable. Her remarks help seal a bond between herself and Madame, and between the General and Congressman. When Madame later raises her worries about Lana, Rita responds with sympathy, extending their political affinity into an exchange about family and perceived threats to a daughter’s virtue.

Domestic Anticommunism

Rita’s politics take the form of rules for the household. She says she will not allow rock music, that her children may not date before eighteen, and that they must observe a ten o’clock curfew while living at home. She frames drugs and sex as infectious and calls unrestricted freedom a weakness. In her account, parental authority is not separate from political struggle: controlling what children hear and do is one way to resist the social disorder she associates with communism.

Congressman gives this outlook a parallel public formulation, arguing that government should restrain Hollywood and record labels. The General’s pointed question about whether Congressman is the government exposes a tension in the discussion: the speakers condemn permissiveness while appealing to authority to regulate it.

Narrative Role

Rita is presented as the domestic counterpart to Congressman’s political anticommunism. Her brief appearance shows how the alliance with Madame is built through a shared language of danger, moral decline, and parental protection. The scene also makes political conviction visible in everyday prescriptions—what children may hear, when they may go out, and whether they may date—rather than only in public speeches or campaigns.